It’s been a LONG time!! {Covering February through mid March}

{although I really tried to limit these posts to just a few favorites pictures, 6 weeks is 6 weeks, and there is a lot.  Enough that instead of having all my posts on one page like I've requested the blog to do...it's put it on two pages. Biggest problem? If at the end of this page you don't select to see past posts...you will miss pictures of the cutest two babies EVER! Not to mention some of my hot hubby and my sweet and sassy 1 year old, so make sure to click back and look at the second page of posts!)

And I’m not going to apologize for slacking, because I haven’t. I have just chosen to spend my time in a different way such as spending 3 weeks in Utah visiting brand new babies, working like crazy on my calling since in one week we had our Stake Activity Day Girls activity, the blue and gold Banquet and the start of our new Combined Scouts  Program starting (which just in itself was hours of work!).  So, there ya have it…my busyness. Now onto the fun stuff!

On Tuesday January 29th I was on my way taking the kids to Swim lessons when I got a text from my sister Janine, telling me she was at a Dr appointment getting an ultrasound and that there is a chance they may have to take the baby early.  Then during swim, it was confirmed. Not only were they going to take the baby early, but it was going to be THAT day!!!    All the sudden I went into panic mode…how fast could I pack and how soon could we leave!

Everything was fine, and the funny part is Janine was WAY more calm than me.  But if it were reversed…I would probably be the same as her.  But I wanted to be there ASAP and had about 1 day to get a LOT of stuff done!

Baby Adelaide was born healthy, wonderful and adorable just 90 minutes after my brother Nate and his wife Dixie had their baby Blake!  YAY!! Twin cousins!  So Wednesday we packed up and Thursday we headed to Utah!

Before I move onto to more about the babies and the trip, I need to finish off February!

The weekend before leaving we had some fun late nights, and friends over for the weekend.  Below are some pics of our fun weekend!

      

Monkey Brains | The best boys hair product ever. And yes I use it for my girls too.  You can’t get it in stores anymore, so we stocked up from our ebay supplier!



It was Sammie’s Birthday on the 29th so we pulled together a little birthday party.  We had fun making her cake, decorating the house and watching her open her present!  Sure love that little girl!



OKay…onto our trip!  We had a great drive there, and that night, Thursday I got to be at Janines house when she returned from the hospital.   Meet Baby Adelaide.  6 lb 8 oz



And then darling Baby Blake!  8lb 6 oz



Having fun at Gma and Gpa’s!~

  

I was overdue for some pictures for Savannah and Emma. Over Christmas break Maliyah and I had a sewing day and made these matching skirts. I saved them for these pictures.  Emma 21 months, and Savannah 3 1/2.  My babies are growing up!

    





Although these pictures were all about the little girls, this was Sunday morning and the boys were all dressed up too, so we included them.  Jayden INSTISTED on getting some done of just him.  He is too funny, and looks way too handsome here!

  

Savannah and Emma are the funniest cutest little toddlers. They love each other so much, but fight like crazy! I can’t wait to watch them grow up together. I’m so blessed to have them!

Enjoying baby and everything else!

When we arrived in Utah a couple of my kids has sniffly noses so we held out for a long time letting kids hold or touch the baby.  I’m talking ALL kids, even Janines kids hardly got to hold or touch her!  Finally after about 2 weeks my kids got their first chance to hold little Adelaide.  Oh how they were in heaven!

  

She was chillin’ while Janine and I were decorating the nursery.



On the 11th we enjoyed a Family Home Evening at Austin and Emma’s apartment.  It was so fun to where they were living and the kids LOVED being there with them!  We had a great time, thanks for letting us take over your home!



Playing Pictionary for our Game



Tuesday the 12th we got to have a playdate with my friend Carrie and her kids.  Carrie and I have been friends for…well forever.  They just moved back here (into the same ward we grew up in!) from Chicago. Although I’ll miss my trips to Chicago, I LOVE that we will be able to see eachother more often and enjoy watching eachothers kids grow up. We sure had a great time spending the morning with them!

   

OH my goodness, this cute little thing was sleeping nearly the whole visit…but we LOVED enjoying her once she woke up!!



While we were there the kids and I had a pretty good morning routine going.  We had groceries down in the kitchenette and were able to just do our own thing down stairs.  Chores, getting ready for the day, school, breakfast and snacks.  We focused on getting everything we needed to do done early so that the rest of the day could be helping Janine and her family.  I don’t know how much of a help we were, but the kids sure enjoyed being able to see eachother every day! 

The hardest part of our schedule though was that the kids got kinda bored. We got done with everything so early and then Janine’s boys were in school till after 3.  Finally one afternoon the kids inquired about playing with the neighbor kids and we were able to make it work out. The boys had a blast playing outside in the snow, and the girls went downstairs to paint fingernails.

 

So cute!~                                                          Emma ready to head out on a walk with mommy

   

Blackberry picking, Birthdays and Babies! (hey those all start with B!)

Monday night some friends invited us to join them to go Blackberry picking for FHE. WE hadn't had a chance to do that yet this year so we were totally in! The kids were reminded of the prickly bushes and how hard it is to get a lot...but we had a great time with our friends and were able to come home and make Blackberry Pear Tarts and Blackberry Shakes! yummm!!! (I think those were responsible for my lack of weight loss this week)

   





 This week we got some fantastic news from my brother Austin...him and his girlfriend Emma are getting married! I knew my kids would be so excited and Austin wanted to tell Maliyah himself....it was fun to watch her face go from 'what might he be calling about' to total excitement!



Congratulations Austin and Emma!!



Wednesday was the birthday of a favorite friend. She is in her 80's and Maliyah visits her most Thursdays during quite time to keep her company, clean her house or whatever juanita wants her to do! We went and made her lunch and played games at her house. the kids played hide and seek forever and loved having a new house with new hiding places! (that's Emma and Nanna counting).





 That night was a baby shower for a gal in the ward who is new and had her baby about 6 weeks ago. Maliyah came with me and was in heaven being able to hold this baby! She's the best little mommy ever!

 

For anybody who doesn't know, duck hired a new employee! He met her at a training in boston and she's great! Her name is tracy and they moved her from a town near santa Barbara. hey wanted a chance and boy did they get it! She love it here though and I love that there is one more person to take the work load off duck! She has also been joining me for Tue night women's basketball and she's good! Anyway, Friday night as her Boss...Duck took her and her husband (and me of course) out to dinner. But we had to do a little golf first! What is a business dinner without golf? Well luckily with them none of it was business, but a lot of fun! Thanks Tracy and Zach...we had a great time!

I left my camera in the car, but it was a beautiful night (minus the bugs) and this was a shot I got from the car before we left.

Drake & Maria

Having fun while I was babysitting. She had been sleeping for 3 hours and wanted NOTHING to do with waking up!

Drake and Maria were married last night. It was a beautiful Wedding and a great date night!

This is Emily, their niece. She is in our ward Primary and to her I'm known as her music teacher that let her help!  lol, I was glad she remembered me in the positive.

Congrats you two!

Visitors-Summer play-Camping! {oh and a new boat!}

This is one LONG post, but I just wanted to throw this all in and get 'er done!  Last weekend I mentioned about Rhonda and her family coming to visit. It was really a great time and every day the kids keep asking when they will be back or when we can visit them!

Carson was a pro at Twister even though he had never played it before! You should have seen him trying to get like this, I thought for SURE he was going to fall. He proved me wrong!



Having a little dance party



Girlies in the bath!



Monday morning we went up to Fish lake, about 45 minutes up in the mountains. The older kids and the guys went fishing while Rhonda and I loaded little girls on our backs and went hiking.  It was a slow but very beautiful hike.  It really is a neat place, very quiet and I totally enjoyed watching the little girlies throw rocks in the lake!





Then we hopped just a couple minutes over to Lake of the Woods for a swim. Unfortunately it was super windy so the second you were out of the water, you froze! We didn't last very long.





During a short visit to Kellie and Remi Maliyah proved her ability to calm a fussy baby.  Remie wanted NOTHING to do with me!



And Emma was thoroughly entertained by her cup and straw

 

Kyson is really taking an interest to taking pictures. I love it because he begs to take pictures and I actually get in one once in awhile!



We made our third attempt to take the kids pictures this summer.  Still a no go.  First attempt, too much light and a super cranky baby, second....not enough light but very well behaved kids, third attempt? So much went wrong I'm not even going to get started...but Savannah may or may not have made me smile with this little image.



Kids enjoy Green smoothies just as much as I do!  (Oh, and let's not forget a little Egg on the nose too!)



The YMCA had their last lunch and activity for the summer so we joined in. They had sack races, egg tossing and water balloon tossing. Not to mention the kids got all kinds of free stuff...t-shirts, waterbottles and school supplies.

   

Oh yeah, and pinata...all jayden cared about was the candy.

   

This last weekend was our WArd Campout. It was held up at our Church camp where they hold girls camps.  We got to stay in cabins, eat in a mess hall and have the beautiful lake to swim and boat in!  I had so much going on and was really tempted to not go and just let Duck head up with the three older kids, but we decided to all go up.  Good thing I did though, we took our new (very old) boat out for the first time and with 15 little kids all waiting around to take a ride...a second adult certainly proved to be helpful!


   



She was so chill in this thing, I thought for sure she would throw a fit because of how bulky it is!



That's Maliyah on the tube!


The church camp has a bunch of canoe's a small fishing boat and this paddle boat.  The kids LOVED taking all the littles out on it.



Babies and Dirt...



This is one of Emma's little friends, kari.  She is one of the four original babies and it still quite the momma's girl. I rarely can get a picture with her smiling. But this sweet Brother and camp wasn't about to let her shyness, shy him away from giving her kisses.  SHE was loving it!  She would slowly smile bigger and bigger and BIGGER as he was kissing her to the point that she was laughing!  It was so dang cute!!



It was a fun weekend and now I totally am looking forward to Duck's day off work tomorrow.  I'm hoping to get caught up on lots of much needed house cleaning!